5 Officers Shot, 2 Suspects Dead In Jersey City Shootout

A chaotic predawn shootout outside a Jersey City apartment building between a shotgun-wielding suspect and the police left five officers wounded — two critically, including one shot in the face — and two suspects dead, according to the Jersey City mayor, Jerramiah Healy, who spoke at a news conference in Jersey City.

Five police officers were taken to New Jersey Medical Center with gunshot wounds in what Mayor Healy called a “terrible gunfight,” and several others sustained injuries relating to the fight.

The officer who had been shot in the face had no signs of life when he was brought in, officials said, but was revived, said doctors at the Jersey City Medical Center. He remained in extremely critical condition.

The other police officer in critical condition was hit in the neck and was in surgery.

Of the other officers injured, one was hit in the vest, another in the arm, and another was grazed in the leg by a bullet and already released.

Gunfire erupted just after 5 a.m. outside an apartment on 24 Reed Street near Bergen Avenue, where the two suspects had already been under investigation by the police. According to another Jersey City law official who requested anonymity, the two people dead are suspected of conducting a robbery in Jersey City with shotguns in June.